Singular

by Larry Buenafe

  They all chortled as if they had heard the funniest joke of all time, but I didn’t get why it was that humorous. Most males are naturally attracted to females, so it was logical for them to find me attractive in my current state. Maybe it was funny because I’m too young for them, I’m not sure.

  After he finished choking himself with laughter, Salgado said, “Don’t worry, Lukey. We know you could whip any of us without even breaking a sweat. We’re just having a little fun.”

  I wasn’t sure what to say, so I just said, “It’s ok, I’m not worried.”

  This made them laugh even harder, and I was totally confused.

  Things quickly settled down, and we spent the rest of the ride in relative silence. Right at six thirty p.m. we pulled into the parking lot of Balboa Park, and as we exited the car Mike pressed and held a spot on his shoulder, then waited for a few moments. “Message sent and received, all are in place,” he growled, nodding to Chi Kim and Salgado. “Let’s roll.”

  We trundled down toward the far southern edge of the docks where the military ships were housed. Next to the sidewalk was a berm about three meters tall, which plateaued into the parking lot where our old SUV sat. I noticed another old vehicle above; a rusty black van backed into a parking space right against the edge of the berm, the rear of the van facing the docks. From our position I could just see into the driver’s side window, and there was what appeared to be a homeless man sitting there. That must be the van with the EMP generator…

  We dug through trashcans along the way to appear more like itinerants or drifters, and the smell of urine and rotting food was overwhelming. I thought that it was logical for the poor and destitute to go through the trash because they might find cans and bottles that they could turn into money so that they could eat, but it was also sad that they had to do that to survive. It didn’t seem right or fair. I didn’t have time to think about it too much, but I promised myself to remember to think about it later.

  As we walked, I noticed, spaced here and there along the sidewalk, homeless people that looked up and made eye contact as we passed, and I realized that these weren’t homeless people at all, they were members of the Bright Hand. A couple of them touched their shoulders as we passed, and then I knew for sure. They were pinging Mike and the others, and I could hear the faint sound from the chip in their ears.

  We passed several massive Navy ships, and I hoped that there weren’t too many troops aboard, because if there were… that would not be in our best interests.

  As we reached the end of the docks, Mike came close and whispered, “Don’t point or act surprised. Look out to sea, just to the left.”

  Still far out but clearly visible, the submarine cruised in toward the docks, two smaller Navy vessels escorting it in. I’m no expert on subs, but this one seemed on the small side; it was nearly the same color as the water it was sliding through and had the streamlined appearance of a ship built for speed.

  “They’re a little early… it’s seven forty-five; they’ll be here by a little after eight. We need to get into place. The government is arrogant but not stupid. We don’t believe that they will be expecting an attack, but they will be prepared. They tend to use brute force, thinking that they can simply overpower any enemy. Today we are going to beat them at their own game. When we see your friend coming out, I’ll send the signal for the VTOL. It’ll land right up above in the parking lot. You’ll have to get him up this rise and into the VTOL asap, so be ready, things are going to happen quickly.”

  I must have looked nervous, because Mike gave me a missing-tooth grin and said, “Don’t worry. We got this. In a few minutes we’ll be on our way back to the jet. Besides, you got all those fancy skills, nothing bad can happen to you.”

  “I’m not worried about me. I just don’t want anyone else to get hurt.”

  Mike chuckled. “Well, someone is gonna get hurt, let’s just not let it be any of us, ok?”

  40

  A s the submarine floated into the dock the two smaller boats escorting it peeled away through the grey waters of the coastline, and then things started happening rapidly, although it all seemed to go in slow motion to me. I think my brain kicked into some kind of high-speed mode; whatever it was, everything moved a little sluggishly compared to normal. The hatch at the top of the sub opened, and soon four soldiers in full camouflage gear and carrying large rifles climbed out. They strutted up the pier next to the sub and then onto the dock, yelling at all the homeless people in the area to clear out. Everyone nearby scampered away from the sub, including the Bright Handers. Although it didn’t seem that anyone else had yet noticed, because of my advanced vision and hearing I detected three drones drift up over the docks; I activated my heads-up display and found that they were about the size of a small car, were a hundred meters above the docks, and were spread about fifty meters apart. I also saw a rather large gun barrel pointing down from the bottom of each of the drones, and I thought that was not a good sign for us. Mike had his hand on my shoulder and I pointed up at the drones. He turned his gaze upward, chuckled, and said, “Just hang on; things are going to get exciting in a minute.”

  Suddenly, there was a scuffle in the parking lot above; the old van parked on the edge of the berm was surrounded by men in black military gear, and the man that had been in the driver’s seat was yanked out and sprawled on the ground, one of the men holding a gun to the back of his head. Mike was watching and smiling, his one front tooth gleaming in the twilight, which I thought was strange, but he whispered, “Wait for it…”

  We were now about thirty meters away from the sub, and out came eight grey suited soldiers wearing bullet-proof vests and looking ready for action, surrounding Mr. Harutyunyan. He had his head down and looked beat up; one of his eyes was swollen shut and he was limping noticeably. His hands were cuffed behind his back, and there were shackles on his ankles, turning his gait into an awkward shuffle. Two ships west of the sub, sailors were hustling around the deck, and it appeared to me that their plan was to take Mr. Harutyunyan off the sub and put him on that ship. The four soldiers clearing off the dock yelled at us to move, but Mike just stood there and waved. They continued to walk toward us, and one of them said, “Hey, isn’t that… hey, I know you!”

  The soldier brought his rifle up, ready to fire, and Mike reached up and pressed the chip on his shoulder; there was a series of quick, violent explosions; the whole dock shook, and I thought for a moment it was going to collapse. The ramps up to all of the military ships in the area, including the sub, were flaming rubble; the four lead soldiers with rifles were knocked off their feet from the concussion, and as they fell, four Bright Handers, including Chi Kim and Salgado, came out of the shadows. Two of them fired weird looking hand guns, and a cloud of tiny needles sprayed out, striking the four soldiers; they went limp almost immediately, and the other two Bright Handers snatched their military rifles away, tossing them into the ocean; the eight soldiers around Mr. Harutyunyan all tumbled to the ground, their attention on the explosions.

  I glanced up, and the three drones were converging on our location, their gun barrels pointing down; the five men in black military gear from the parking lot above scrambled down the berm, their guns raised; a second old van squealed into the parking lot, it’s sliding side door wide open; Mike whispered, “You might want to activate your EMP shielding now,” and a deafening ‘WHOOM!’ shot out of the speeding van; then everything went dark. A second later, two of the drones splashed into the ocean and one fell onto the deck of one of the ships, smashed to bits. “The first van was a decoy,” Mike hissed. “Are all your systems on line?”

  “I activated my heads-up display, and it all seemed to be working properly; I whispered, “Ava, are we ok?”

  “That was touch-and-go for a second, but we are good. No time to dally, they’ll recover sooner than later. And look up, you’ve got incoming.”

  Although all the electronics in the area were dead, there was a nearly full moon, which provided just eno
ugh light for the sailors from the ship above to see us on the dock. There appeared to be about ten leaning over the ship’s railing. After a short burst of popping sounds, I felt several bullets impact with the wooden dock planks a meter from my feet; then someone from the ship yelled, “Hold your fire, you idiots! They want them taken alive!”

  I glanced at Mike, and he appeared ok, but Salgado had been hit three times, and he wasn’t moving. As Mike crouched beside him, he signaled Chi Kim and the two others to head toward the five men in black military gear; I hadn’t noticed before that they had hoods over their faces as well. The three Bright Handers and five hooded men faced off; from behind them came a whole gaggle of Bright Handers, running down the berm, tackling the five soldiers to the ground; they rolled in the dirt, there was another burst of gunfire, and several of the Bright Handers went down.

  I thought this was going to be a quick, in and out mission… I didn’t want anyone to get shot… we shouldn’t have come here… I was in a bit of shock; Mike tapped me on the side and said, “How far can you throw?”

  “Pretty far, I guess.”

  He dug in his pocket and handed me an object about the size of a tennis ball. “Throw this right over the heads of the sailors shooting at us up there. You can see them better than me.”

  “What is it?”

  “Just do it!”

  I stared at him.

  “It’s a net, the same kind we used on the docks in Melbourne, now throw it!”

  I tossed the object the forty meters to just above the sailor’s heads; it detonated, and a rapidly expanding net fell on them. The incredibly sticky material ensnared almost all of them; they struggled and cussed but were unable to break free. He handed me another one and I got the rest of them with the second toss.

  The eight soldiers surrounding Mr. Harutyunyan had regained their footing, and were crouched with their guns drawn, pointing in our direction. There were thirteen Bright Handers down with bullet wounds; the four lead soldiers were all unconscious from flechette needles, and two of the five hooded soldiers were down, shot by their own people. When the sailors shot at the Bright Handers coming down the berm from the parking lot, those that didn’t get shot scattered, and it was unclear where they were now. At the moment, it appeared that it was just Mike and me against three hooded soldiers and eight more soldiers surrounding Mr. Harutyunyan.

  There was a moment when we all stood staring at one another, and I’m not sure why, but I said, “Ava, put me back in my normal body.” My feminine curves faded, and I reached up and snatched the blond wig off my head.

  “Wait, don’t shoot, that’s the kid!” one of the soldiers near Mr. Harutyunyan shouted.

  Although it was low, I could hear Mr. Harutyunyan chuckling. Under his breath, he muttered, “You guys are in trouble now.”

  Mike seized the moment; while the soldiers were distracted by me, he grabbed the flechette gun from Salgado and fired it twice at the eight soldiers surrounding Mr. Harutyunyan; six of the eight plus Mr. Harutyunyan went down immediately, and Mike yelled, “Go!”

  I leaped over the dead and unconscious pile of soldiers and Bright Handers and streaked the remaining thirty meters toward Mr. Harutyunyan in less than a second; behind me I heard the three remaining hooded soldiers pounce on Mike; neither of the two standing soldiers near Mr. Harutyunyan had a chance to even move as I jumped and kicked them in the head, my legs stretching to make maximum contact, sending them crashing to the wooden planks. Two of the downed soldiers were handcuffed to Mr. Harutyunyan, and I twisted the links, snapping them off; because I was still in ultrawide mode I saw the three hooded soldiers holding guns to Mike’s head. In the distance I heard the VTOL craft coming toward us from the east.

  One of the three hooded soldiers reached up and pulled off his mask. It was… the big man from Alexy’s boat. “I don’t know how you got all the way over here, but that was a pretty good little tussle.” He pulled back his right sleeve to reveal a small cast covering his right hand. “We didn’t think there would be an attempt to rescue your friend there, but we knew if there was going to be one, it would be right here. This was the weak point, so we had some people at the ready, as you found out. Why don’t you just give it up, kid? We don’t want to hurt you; we just want to figure out what makes you tick. It would be a huge advantage for the protection and safety of our country. Look, I lost two of my guys here, but I’m willing to forget it all. Just come with us. You can bring your big friend with you.”

  “Why are you pointing your guns at my friend?”

  “Who, Mike here? Oh, him and me go way back, right, Mike? We just have a little personal score to settle, that’s all.”

  Mike glanced up from his kneeling position and said, “I won’t let you take me. You know that, right?”

  The big man said, “I don’t think you’re in any position to tell us what you’re gonna do.”

  “Tell you what, let’s make a deal. We have four of your men from the attack in Melbourne. We trade them for the kid and his friend, then we all walk away.”

  “Come on, Mike, you know I can’t make a deal like that, even if I wanted to. Those soldiers knew what they were getting into. No, the only deal to be made is, in exchange for coming with us, we don’t kill you.”

  The VTOL was almost silent, and due to the noise of people moaning and the men on the ship yelling, trying to escape the sticky nets, it didn’t seem that the three hooded soldiers were aware of it; it was coming in low and without any lights, although I could see. I could also hear several soldiers in a small inflatable boat trying to sneak up on me from below the docks.

  “Look, I told you, I won’t let you take me, or them. Make the deal and at least you’ll get your people back.”

  The big man stared down at Mike and said, “Why don’t you just shut up?”

  Then he backhanded Mike across his face. His head spun to the side; he spat out some blood, looked directly at me, and said, “Ok, but you won’t have the chance to say I didn’t warn you. Lukey, run!”

  I reached down and hoisted Mr. Harutyunyan over my shoulder, turning just in time to see Mike fumbling with something in his hand; the soldiers had all turned their attention to me for a moment, so they didn’t see him press and hold a spot on his shoulder. There was a stunning flash of light, and I was almost knocked off my feet from the percussive blast; Mike and the three soldiers were literally gone, nothing of them remained; the dock was now in tatters, a gaping hole where they used to be. The soldiers in the water below had been climbing up the pilings but were thrown off by the blast; by their sound I could tell that they were recovering and would soon be coming after me again.

  “Ava, you know what to do. Control Mode.”

  Suddenly, I had no power over my movement; my body made one massive leap and was standing in the parking lot above the berm still hefting Mr. Harutyunyan over my shoulder, then it was sprinting toward the VTOL in the far-right corner of the mostly empty parking lot. Military vehicles were screeching in from the far-left side, but there was a spark and a deafening roar, and the first vehicle flipped in the air; three Bright Handers were running across the parking lot toward the old van, including Chi Kim, and I was glad to see that at least he was still alive.

  My body dumped Mr. Harutyunyan in the rear of the VTOL and jumped in the front; he was splayed out, but Ava didn’t take the time to straighten him up or buckle him in. My hands went to the controls and the VTOL zipped up and forward almost instantly, flying dark, just above the trees and houses. I didn’t have time to worry about any of the Bright Handers that were still left at the docks, but I hoped they were able to get out.

  41

  F ifteen minutes later Ava piloted the VTOL into a warehouse, much like Benji had done in our escape from the lab. And, also similar was the small car waiting to take us back to Lancaster. There were several Bright Handers in the warehouse, but I didn’t recognize any of them; they huddled together, talking quietly, and it was obvious that they knew of the bun
gled mission at the docks and were discussing what to do after the loss of so many of their group. I jumped out of the VTOL, and some of the Bright Handers attempted to help me with Mr. Harutyunyan, but they were just getting in the way.

  “Back up, I have him!” I shouted, and up to that moment I hadn’t realized how angry I was, but now I almost lost it. Luckily Ava was still in control of my body or I might have broken something or even hurt one of the Bright Handers. They all backed away quickly, and I pulled the still unconscious man from the rear of the craft, carried him to the small car, and put him in the back seat.

  “Well? Let’s go!” I screamed. They had a funny look on their faces, and I think it was that they weren’t sure what to do, or that they were waiting for someone. I could feel that the control mode I was in would be ending soon, and I would collapse for a few minutes, unable to move. I was confused by their hesitation, but then heard a car screech into the space next to the warehouse, and in ran Chi Kim.

  Covered in dirt and dripping with sweat, he gasped, “What are you waiting for? Let’s move!”

  We climbed in, shot out of the warehouse, and soon were speeding up the freeway toward Lancaster. I felt Ava’s control release, and suddenly I couldn’t move, couldn’t talk, couldn’t even shift my eyes.

  Chi Kim was talking but there was a buzzing in my brain that made it a bit difficult to hear him; after asking me a question and not getting a response, he asked, “Are you ok?”

  I still couldn’t move, and in his high voice, he said, “Oh, crap, you’re not dead, are you?”

  Receiving no response, he punched the steering wheel and let out a scream.

  We continued down the freeway for about fifteen minutes, and suddenly I felt some movement coming back. I said, “I’m not dead,” and he nearly jumped out of his seat.

  “Oh my God, what happened?”

  I explained how I got out of the dock area by using Control Mode, and what that meant.